Improvement in hemmers for sewing-machines



(" WILLIAM JOHNSON.

Improvement in Hemmer for Sewing Machines.

No. 121,944. Patented Dem19.,1871.

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WILLIAM JOHNSON, OF HAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,944, dated December 19, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM JoHNsoN, of Haverhill, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Hemmer for Sewing-Machines; and do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure l is a View of my invention as applied to the cloth-plate of a Singer sewingmachine. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the hemmer. Fig. 3 shows the shape of the hemmer-blank as struck from a sheet of metal.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple, cheap, and effective hemmer, which is read ily adapted to any of the ordinary sewing-ma chines; and consists in making it of a single piece of sheet metal struck out in the form shown in Fig. 3, and afterward reducing it to the form shown in the other figures.

The hemmer shown in the drawing is especially designed for the Singer sewing-machine, which has a raised tablet upon the cloth-supporting plate.

In forming my said device I first stamp from a plate of any suitable metal, having the requisite thickness, and by means of a die, a blank having the form as shown in Fig. 3.

In the said drawing, A denotes the base-plate or arm of the hemmer, which has a slot near one end thereof to receive a thumb-screw, B, by which it is attached to the cloth-plate of the machine. 0 is the cloth-folding part of the device, which is of the usual shape, and is formed by rolling the part D of the blank (shown in Fig. 3) over upon itself. a is a guide or gauge, which determines the width of the cloth entering the larger end of the hemmer. As heretofore construct-ed such gauge has consisted of a flat disk disposed at a right angle to the mouth of the hemmer. This is objectionable, especially when the article to be hemmed has a transverse seam made in it, the work being often stopped thereby. To remedy this evil I extend the gauge to some distance back of the mouth and form the same with an inward curve of a semicircular shape, by which such seamed portions are enabled to readily pass through the hemmer without obstruction. Furthermore, the said hemmer-plate has formed on its under surface a projecting rib, 1), whose outer end abuts against the tablet of the cloth-plate of the machine, the same being for the purpose of preserving the axis of the hem mer in coincidence with the line of feed, and also giving the baseplate of the hemmer greater stiffness.

In constructing my improved hemmer I form and dispose the mouth thereof on the inner edge of the base-plate and extend the plate back therefrom a sufficient distance to constitute a clothsupporting bed, whereby the entrance of the cloth into the mouth of the hemmer is not obstructed, as is the case with those hemmers whose months are disposed on a line flush with the outer edge of the carrying-plates, my arrangement enabling the cloth or fabric to be hemmed to pass freely and smoothly into the mouth of the hemmer.

I do not claim, broadly, constructing a hemmer of a single piece of metal, irrespective of its form and mode of construction, as I am aware that such is not new. Nor do I claim forming the mouth of the hemmer with a gauge or guide-lip, irrespective of the peculiar form and construction of the same. Nor do I claim providing a hemmer with a pin to preserve the hemmer in its normal position on the bed of the machine, as such involves the necessity of either soldering or riveting such pin to the hemmer-plate, and is liable to work loose or become broken. In my invention the whole hemmer, in all its parts, is made of a single plate of metal and Without any riveting or soldering.

Therefore, what I claim as my invention, and as an improved article of manufacture, is-

The hemmer herein described, made from a single piece of metal, shaped and folded as set forth.

WILLIAM JOHNSON.

Witnesses:

F. P. HALE, F. G. HALE. 

